The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-13
THOUGHTS ABOUT THINGS.
The Ideas Suggested to Rev. Myron W.
Reed by Tennyson's Locksley Hall.
An Entertaining Lecture on Old Ways Com.
pared with Those of the Progressive
and Improved New World.

the mistake of naming the lecture before it was
written. He had called it concerning Optim-
ISM" after writing it he thought perhaps the
title of Tennysons last poem, "Locksley Hail.
Sixty Years After" would do as WE'LL ST pre-
fer" he said, ''the old poem. This latest of
Tennyson's seems to be a miserere While we
have been trying to follow his advice and ring
out the DID, ring in the new he finds fault with
US. He seems to have lost his ear for the march
ing steps Of the good time coming. What is the
matter with old Mr. Iennyson anyways He
seems to have had q good time in life. The
weather of his worst day has been kinder than
that of the best day of Robert Burns. Tenny-
son has been favorite with the powers that be,
from the Queen to the bookseller. When an
old man dies at noon saying that it is night, ths
sun has not fallen; it is only that
the old mans eyes are darkened. Isaiah saw
many cheerful things, and SO did St John. and
John Brown, and Plato prefer to take their
word for 1t against the word of any four
cyncs OF course, the book entitled, Is Life
Worth LivingP was written by an Euglishman-
an English gentleman who had nothing to do but
to ask questions. People who earn their living
seldom commit suicide. 1t is some Prince Of
Denmark who argues the advantages of dying.
The voice OF Victor Hugo did not change when
ne was eighty. He believed in the outcome. He
had thousand things begun that he had not
fnished-a thousand things planned that he had
not begun. He wanted to be immortal. He
said it was necessary to him in order that he
might attend to the unfinished business and the
| new business He did not adjourn when he died
| he took a recess, and was soon at work again
| 4
''Mr. Tennyson is looking backward at the
| good old times When Locksley Hall was in
| fourishing condition men were hung for snar-
ing a rabbit. If three men met together to
talk politics, 1t WAS felony. Little children
worked in coal mines. There was a great deal
| of British military glory being made bright by
| the black background of industrial misery.
! Contrast Gladstone with Tennyson. The story
of Glaistone's life increases in interest The
| chapters toward the end are the best A good
forgetfuness is more blessed gift than a per-
| feet memory great lover Of statistics was at
| the funeral OF his wife The coffin was lowered.
! He held his bulls eye watch if at horse
| race. and announced that Ut just twenty
minutes past when we got her in.' / am get
ting somewhat tired of things that ought to
| be buried-and the memory of them.
dead OK and telling people what
| a
Christmas, and can think of nothing but the
days that have been; but his little son is think
! ing of the days to come. I hear him ask: When
| is fre-cracker day comingF-which is expressive
| for the Fourth of July. 1t was remarked by a
Colorado editor, last October, that by the time
| certain candidate had gone through with his
campaign he would have lost the cheerful op-
timism which SO pleasantly characterized him.
| do not see why the result Of what memh her
| from Colorado calls the idees Of November
| should change philosophy. Some men make a
| miscue and then stand back and think the
| earth is off its center, and some men chalk the
| cue and try it again. John Bunyan sees the De-
| lectable mountains and the celestial city from
| the floor of Jail. The best and most hopeful
work has been done by nvalids. They put their
personal pain aside and see things as they
| IAN this talk OF freedom and equality is very
| depressing to Mr. Tennyson. 1t was to his
grandfather, in 1716 1t is TO anybody who
| holds more than he has earned. There is an ir-
| rration manifest in the poem OF the same kind
as that OF a certain doctor Of divinity at meet
| ing of the General Assembly of the Presby terian
| Church in the good old days when Abraham Lin
| coin was boy. Some one presented petition
| for some action on the slavery question. and ne
| then inquired if they were ito be pestered every
year by this sort Of thingF And the same Gen
| eral Assembly put in a day and half on the sin
| of dancing.
us one little shp-load OF immigrants, driven
bv the wind to settle at Plymouth. to settle the
| fashion for all the people who arrive at various
times along the COAST Is the child Of the
| Puritan to settle and remain forever on the
| bleak hill side and harvest the annual, only-un-
failing crop of stones, or shall ne. moving West.
forget something and learn something's
Our young men can no longer go West They
must go Up down. Not new Lana, but w
virture must be the outlet of the future. Our
halt at the barriers of the Pacific is a more Sc
rious affair than that which brought our an
cestors to pause before the barriers of the At.
lantic, and compelled them to practice living to
gether. Men from Cain and Abraham knew how
4hou Loo hon
gether.
.The pillow of Egypt is a good pillow for thai
old country or for New Mexico. The modern
butcher finds that Moses's way of killing cattle
IS wise and adopts it. Henry George finds mnct
| of his new doctrine in the old Bible and in tn,
oldest books of the Bible. We cannot breal
suddenly and utterly with the past 1t takes
long time to change a sheen dog into a shepherd
| or Ute into farmer The alligator Fingers
still above the earth He does not flourish bu
he fingers. He and Locksley Hall are in poo
health. Less than weeks journey will iet Vol
see threshing floor and and winnowine
! fan of the tme OF Abraham. / have seel
women bringing water from the ella river
| in ars on their shoulders. 1t was good enough
, picture of the Hebrew girl Of Genesis. l hav
, seen a woman on burro carrying the baby j,
. the fold of her blanket. her husband foot a
. her side. That is the flight into Egypt. Their
is no better place to read in the old Syrian book
than in Colorado and New Mexico. Ben -Hu
was written by man who had never seen Pales
tine. He had read books and looked at the los
, white walled will yes of Southwest. ii
found the old haiolts, and customs, and cvlors
Since the book WAS written he has been abroad
. walked to Emmaus and found nothing to cor
, rect in his vivid pictures
! Nothing new has gone perfectly out. nothin
: | new has perfectly come in. Cleopatra's needl
) and the statue of Robert Burns are visible i
!, the same new city. l read with delight that tn
= stone of Egypt is taking of-that it canno
stand the atmosphere of the world Moth
| ing built by slaves and sold by thieves can Ion
endure our climate. Robert Burns in Centre
t Park is not taking off. He has come to tn
S new world to stay. Cleopatra and her luggag
J., | belong to the Nile.
;. Much cruelty has gone out of the world
u God was represented as magnifed Peter til
} Great or the Tycoon. doing things for his ow
Q pleasure commanding the creature to be betts
n than the Creator. There is much to make OF